Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Zhang Ziyi looking psychedelic in pink in pink in pink in pink in pink in pink.....

If you want to watch a Bollywood movie with better visuals, even more spectacular stunts, extremely cheap sentiments and an equally bad storyline, you could watch the House of the Flying Dagggers. Since I want to cut out euphemisms, it is only possible either to praise or pick at this movie. I dont want to pick on this movie... it shows genuine effort and after being cheated by Mumbai Express, any movie that shows atleast a decent bit of effort seems like it is worthy of praise. (Even AYYA).

Well... really you wont have to look very hard to praise this movie. The director Zhang Yimou has made the camera the most explosive element in an action movie. Colours assault you in this movie. Every frame has all the colours of the VIBGYOR.It looks as though the entire movie was shot as a cartoon and somehow the human characters were included. If the surrounding scenery is a forest.. you see yellow leaves...(lime yellow... not the brownish yellow that you would associate with the fall leaves), blue sky (you could almost pick it of the 'azure' pallete in Nerolac Paints brochure), green leaves (seriously.. the leaves are THIS green). You feel like you were slapped HARD in the face... you see so many colours. Psychedelic is an understatement when it comes to describing the cinematography.

The action effects were also beautifully choregraphed. In one sequence we see two characters running through a bamboo forest, (can you even imagine a Chinese movie without a bamboo forest fight sequence now) you are astounded to find later in the special features on the DVD, that everything including the bamboo poles used as weapons were entirely digitally created. The actors just have to swing empty hands and run along a pre determined path.

The fight sequences are also equally vibrant. The movie is replete with fast panning close up shots of intelligent daggers slicing and weaving through the air following a torturous path to unerringly strike their target, and shirt sleeves and cloth strips that seem to have the ability to strike, grab, twist around anything at the flick of the owners wrist. It is like the cloth pieces have a life of its own.